


Christmas One-Shot

by everythingendswithus



Category: All The Stars Fall
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, found family trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:08:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26089924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingendswithus/pseuds/everythingendswithus
Summary: Dakota hasn't celebrated Christmas in a long time so some fluff for her. Here it is.





	Christmas One-Shot

**Author's Note:**

> based off of my original WIP All The Stars Fall. The story I originally had got scrapped but I recently found these and wanted to repost because I just love these little shits to death and back.

“Dakota.” Her dark head lifted and she met Eliza’s blue gaze. Dakota looked past her to see the door of the Academy open. She could hear laughter from the others and her heart twisted. Memories of holiday’s before- both with and without family- burned the backs of her eyelids and she turned her face up at the light flurries, falling from the grey sky. “Dakota?” Eliza asked again. “Are you coming inside? It’s cold.” Dakota finally looked at Eliza and took in her appearance. She wore a white sweater with black leggings underneath. She was hugging her arms to her chest and her pale cheeks were already flushed from being in the cold. 

“Sorry. Yeah. I’ll be inside in a minute.” She turned away again. It was silent for so long that she thought Eliza had gone back inside. Instead, she flinched when Eliza linked their elbows. “It’s okay. I’ll be there in a second.” Eliza gave a sympathetic smile.

“What’s on your mind?” Dakota felt her lips tug downwards and Eliza pulled her closer. “You can tell me.”

Dakota weighed her options for a moment before sighing. “I,” She glanced at Eliza’s pink face. “I haven’t really celebrated Christmas in a while.” It sounded more like a question than an explanation and Dakota winced. Now it was Eliza’s turn to frown. Her frown quickly changed from confusion to understanding, to sadness, and finally fury. Anger was still such a bewildering emotion to see from level-headed Eliza. 

“Well,” She said, composure reappearing. “I suppose we’ll just have to fix that, won’t we?” She tugged Dakota’s arm gently and Dakota hesitated a moment before following. 

\---

Dakota shut the door behind them and followed after Elizabeth. They emerged into the sitting room and their friends looked up, smiles playing on their happy faces. All seven teenagers were wearing festive pajamas in multiple colours. Roman jumped up from his place beside Genesis and Isaiah. He danced over plates and cups and grabbed a plastic cup on his way over to them. Eliza shrugged and moved to sit with Mikah.

“Are you doing alright?” He asked, smile on his lips but not quite reaching his eyes. She nodded once and looked at the cup he was now holding out to her. “Eggnog? Sophia made it.” She looked over at the dark-skinned girl who was wearing a teasing smile and purple pajama pants with a white tank top. 

“You sure she didn’t poison it?” He laughed a bit and offered it again. She took it and cradled it in her cold hands. 

“Welcome to the party, Madam Glooms-a-lot,” Jay called. Everyone laughed lightly and she felt a small smile curl on her lips. Roman and Isaiah made room for her and she sat between them. Jay stood and raised his cup. Based on his swaying stance and lazy smile, Dakota assumed he was drinking more than just eggnog. 

“Tonight is a very momentous occasion, children,” Sophia reached up and poked his side. “We have all just been made aware of how absolutely fucked up we are. To add salt to this very large and painful wound, we are spending the holidays away from our families because they believe we’re delusional. However, having said that,” He paused, looking around at the people before him. “I don’t feel alone anymore.” His voice softened at the last comment and he took a swig of his drink. It got quiet for a moment before he charged on. “If someone had told me in September that I would be sitting in this fucking mansion with assholes, delinquents, goody-two-shoes’ and this one,” he pointed at Sophia, drunkenly shaking his head. “I would have told them they were daft. Completely. Utterly. And yet, here I stand with people I once detested and I call them family.” He smiled a bit before sitting and putting his arm around Sophia and pulling her in for a kiss. Everyone groaned before bursting into laughter. Dakota let the noise swell around her, let herself feel at peace, before standing. 

Rome looked at her curiously and she shrugged. “I don’t really do ‘feelings’ and ‘speeches’,” she used air-quotes and refused to make eye-contact with anyone. “But if that rich douchebag can do it, so can I.” She looked at Jay who had a smile and he gave her a thumbs up. Dakota rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop herself from smiling.

“So, ah, I haven’t really had anything since my mom disappeared. Since Theo disappeared. My dad- well, you know. He didn’t find any point in celebrating without either one of them and apparently I wasn’t enough. I fought a lot, I got kicked off the field hockey team, I was the worst to my best friend, I was the worst to all of you. I’m going to admit this now and we’re never talking about it again.” She caught Koa’s eyes where he was smiling profoundly. “I was scared. Scared of letting anyone near me. Scared of people depending on me. Scared of trusting anyone. Day one of that damn detention classroom I saw exactly what our labels were. A princess with palace walls and wealth to protect her, a brooding asshole who refused to speak to anyone,” Isaiah smiled sheepishly when she looked at him and Eliza watched her carefully. “A girl from south of the border with a tendency to lash out in another language, a perfect boy with perfect grades and looks. Mikey, I saw a shy boy with a habit of ducking his head and getting emotional. 

And I saw Roman as someone who was a fool for staying by my side when I gave him nothing.” She gave a sharp laugh and shook her head, blinking away tears. “Jefferey and Sophia. Goddamn, I just wanted to kick your asses because you were so spoiled and annoying and you thought you were better than everyone,” She looked at them each, one by one. “Jay’s right. If someone would have asked me four months ago who I’d want to be with, I would have said my own flesh and blood but right now, I’m glad to have the family that not only chose me but the family that I chose. No matter what happens in the future, I’m glad that you dumbfucks will be a part of it.” She held her cup up and felt a tear roll down her cheek. “Cheers…” Jay was out of his chair in milliseconds and he was attacking her in a hug. Dakota laughed as he spun her around and soon, everyone else was crowded around her too. 

“We love you, Kotes,” Genesis said quietly, tears shining in her eyes as well.

“You’re a bitch,” Dakota said with a laugh, trying to wipe her tears away. “I said I don’t like feelings.” Koa laughed and Roman hugged her before pressing a kiss to her temple.

“We didn’t ask.” He pulled back and ruffled her hair. “Now we need to stop being so depressing and emotional., This was supposed to be a fucking Christmas party for God’s sake.” Somewhere in the back, holiday music struck up and when they turned Professor Ross was standing in the doorway of his office with a smile and a mug.

“Mind if I join?” Dakota smiled and shook her head.

“No. No, we don’t mind.”

\---

The rest of the night blurred into colour and laughter. Music echoed down the halls of the Academy and Cocoa and Eggnog were poured. Dakota’s heart swelled with hope, with admiration, with love for these beautiful people. Sophia coaxed her into dancing and Roman spun her around and around and around until the night floated into bliss. And when it was time to call it a night, she may have pressed her lips to Eliza’s and twisted her fingers in her blonde hair and laughed when Roman threw popcorn at them and Eliza’s cheeks turned pink. 

This was all she needed and more. These people were the family she never thought she would want or have. And she would never need anything else.

**Author's Note:**

> follow my twitter account @/brekkerofrules!


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